Status of Adivasis/Indigenous People Land Series – 3: Maharashtra

Description

Every single market town in the Scheduled Areaa of Maharashtra is teeming with non-tribals, including many government servants who live in houses taht have illegally come up on Adivasi lands. While the law specifically prohibits the leasing out of Adivasi lands, except with the permission of the Collector, and that too for a maximum of five years, the phenomenon of 99-year lease is ubiquitous. No changes are effected in the land documents, but the possession of the land is transferred to the non-Adivasi.

Brian Lobois an activist of the Kashtakari Sanghatna, a mass organisation of mainly Adivasis landless and marginal farmers, working in Thane district of Maharashtra.

Other Reports in the series:

Gujarat

Orissa

Jharkhand

Nagaland

Jharkhand